Supersized documents

[Kate G.]

I do a 6 page newsletter that incorporates maybe 15 or so images (some clip
art.... some snagged from the web). Copyright issues aside (this is a SMALL
NEWSLETTER for local members of a craft club -- no money making involved), I
am frustrated in that my document seems to grow to enormous sizes.

Generally -- I take last month's document... do a save as... then delete
nearly all of the content. This preserves the need for recreating several
repeat features/headlines.

Pictures are usually either jpg or gifs. I then rebuild next month's
newsletter. I print it to PDF for easy distribution to craft club members.

I noticed this issue is more than 16 MB. HUGE!! And not quite finished
yet! I haven't written to PDF yet -- but you know it will be of
substantial size as well.

I do have a number of little text boxes lying around the "gray space" while
I work on the document.

What suggestions can you give me to help keep the size of my documents down?
What picture format is recommended? (I can convert using PSP if needed.) I
do have to snail mail some copies -- so image resolution for printing needs
to be maintained.

I am using Pub 2000 on a Win XP Pro System.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mary Sauer]

PUB2000: Publication Retains Large File Size When Pages Are Deleted
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/218725/en-us

 

[Ed Bennett]

Generally -- I take last month's document... do a save as... then delete
nearly all of the content.

THIS IS A VERY BAD IDEA.

Create a new copy of your newsletter from scratch (not from an existing
version, and not using copy and paste). Make it blank, so that nothing
but the repeated common elements that don't change are there; use empty
text and picture frames where text will ultimately go. Then go to File >
Save As, select Publisher Template from the Type list, and choose a
filename. Now, for each newsletter you create, choose to create a new
file based on this template (look for Templates in the Catalog - I don't
have Publisher 2000 on me, so I can't give exact instructions).

Create a test newsletter to make sure that the template works properly.
If changes need to be made, open up the template file and edit it
appropriately before saving it back to the template location.

Pictures are usually either jpg or gifs. I then rebuild next month's
newsletter. I print it to PDF for easy distribution to craft club members.

Publisher 2000 expands all compressed images to uncompressed bitmaps.
This means that JPEGs in particular expand to many times their original
filesize.